Alyssa Navarrette

[Mari K Smith]: Hello, can you please say your name and your year at antioch.

[Alyssa navarette]: I'm Alyssa Navarette. I'm a first year at Antioch college and I'm in charge of this project here at Antioch with Mari Smith who will be interviewing me.

[Mari K Smith]: SO Alyssa Navarette. How do you feel about the statement race is not real?

[Alyssa Navarette]: I really like that statement or asking people about that. 00:01:00Because race is a very subjective thing I've come to learn since the definition of race in the united states at the very least has been changed multiple times depending on the agendas of the politicians. Depending on what they want or what they're trying to gain they'll change it. For example many times Hispanics have had to check white instead of Hispanic and that has changed several times throughout the years to affect the census and affect various things that politicians are trying to gain control over which has evidently worked. I feel like race itself isn't real but racism is very real.

[Mari K Smith]: Can you define why you believe racism is real when race isn't.

[Alyssa Navarette]: Because race is used to, it was used to create the social construct to be used against us which created racism. So while race isn't real, race is used as another way to categorize us in a negative way in America. Which is a way 00:02:00I've experienced it.

[Mari K Smith]: So that wasn't an answer I was quite expecting from you tbh. What are some specific instances in which you felt like race doesn't apply? Because biologically we have different races of people right? Do you agree with that statement?

[Alyssa Navarette]: In a sense yes but I think a better term would be ethnicity instead of race because those are two different things and everyone uses race as a very blanket statement. Race is very hard to define what ethnicity and what race you are because yeah I'm Mexican American because I was born here and my family was from Mexico but what about the people that were born in Mexico but there other parent is American? Because that also makes them Mexican American there are just so many different variations for one description of a person. It makes it very confusing and a very grey area.

[Mari K Smith]: So how do you feel about the statement race is not real? Because clearly you intellectually disagree with it? Does it make you mad? Do you feel like it is empowering?

[Alyssa Navarette]: I feel like it can be empowering for some people of color because at first I was like "race is real because racism is real right? Obviously that was my very first thought." After doing more research there is this video from vox they have this snapchat thing. They're like a news station kind of thing. Vox made a video about how race isn't real but racism is very subjective but those things always change. It's like we don't change the definition of the color black for crayon but you can change the definition of the color black for a person.

[Mari K Smith]: What are your feelings and thoughts on the POC culture of Antioch's campus? [Alyssa Navarette]: I felt my very first quarter here I felt very strange and like an outsider and like I was constantly being judged but I think that is just what it is like to be a freshman anywhere to be honest. I have come very close to a lot of the POC on campus because of the POC group and they're so accepting and understanding they're very supportive even if they don't 100% agree with you all of the time. Or if they're not experiencing the same thing. I think they're very good at cultivating this sense of family that you're missing miles away from home.

[Mari K Smith]: So you believe that POC culture is a very positive thing on Antioch's campus?

[Alyssa Navarette]: Within POC culture on campus I think it is a very positive thing. Outside of POC I think a lot of non-POC people on campus or people that choose not to be apart of the POC group on campus I think they have a lot of negative thoughts about it I think it makes them uncomfortable which I mean I think it does make people uncomfortable and that's reasonable but the LGBTQueer group doesn't make people uncomfortable and the women's group doesn't make people uncomfortable so why does a POC group make people uncomfortable?

[Mari K Smith]: So you believe that POC culture within itself is a very good thing but it is perceived negatively by a broader culture?

[Alyssa Navarette]: Yes

[Mari K Smith]: Why do you think that is?

[Alyssa Navarette]: I think that just because we're people of color and just the 00:05:00history that comes with people of color and Blacks. The very first thing people think about is segregation and slavery and it makes people so uncomfortable. It makes people uncomfortable to think about history they may not have actively participated in the past. But it is still a part of their culture as much as it is a part of our culture.

[Mari K Smith]: So coming off of that, what kind of social constructs do you feel contribute to racism specific to our campus?

[Alyssa Navarette]: Sexism, Feminism. Even with in POC it is very clear that the men of color on campus aren't as active in the group. They try to separate themselves. I think they only come around when they want to and it's convenient for them. Besides a few of them. But I mean even in POC group itself you can see the difference between the more Feminist POC and there is still like this 00:06:00patriarchal thing in every culture but it still proves that every little thing can affect you in a way. I don't know if that makes sense.

[Mari K Smith]: No, I understand. So within the POC culture there is sexism because the women are more involved. There is racism because it's part of an embarrassing past that is a part of normal white culture if I understand correctly? So those two things are things that exist on our campus and are actively hurting us is what you are saying? That sexism and racism exist on our campus?

[Alyssa Navarette]: Yes I do still think it exists on our campus. I think from the outside at the first glance you don't see it because we're such a social justice oriented school and to the naked eye it seems like everyone is fine. When you see deeper words you get a better glance. A better look into how exactly even unconsciously we have sexism and patriarchal views instilled in us from the way society is as a whole and how our parents decided to raise us and how we had different experiences in school that while vary slightly, variation of it were very different but in the end a lot of us still have the same result we have these values instilled in us that we're not completely aware of that still exist.

[Mari K Smith]: Would you say this is a college campus issue or an Antioch issue?

[Alyssa Navarette]: I would say this is a college campus issue. I think Antioch handles it differently than many other college campuses because we've been told throughout this whole process how we handled it diplomatically and our first thing wasn't very petty I guess in a sense. We didn't right away go to the new station and be like "Antioch doesn't want to give us this and that '' and we haven't caused all of this commotion I feel. Which is a very different approach compared to many different colleges and while their approach can be successful for the most part it can also be very dangerous.

[Mari K Smith]: Please explain the POC day of disappearance action to us in your own words. As well as why you feel it was impactful if you believe it was impactful.

[Alyssa Navarette]: The POC disappearance was, we were at a POC meeting and we were talking about the housing issues and other issues about our demands that we had requested last quarter and we hadn't gotten a response yet although our responses to like week 00:08:00three and our response are like week four or five by then. We started brainstorming what we could do in the end we decided that it would be very impactful if we disappeared for a day and just testing to see if we would even notice if people of color are like gone and see if people would be happy about it, if they would be sad, if people would be texting and messaging us if they were worried about it. It was also just like a day for us to think things through and talk about it and see the different point of views coming through all of the different POC that we could get to come. I think it was very helpful at the end to get various POC who don't normally come to meetings. I feel their perspectives were changed and their concerns were addressed; I think it was very productive.

[Mari K Smith]: So right now we did do our first two interviews from 00:09:00prospective interviews. In retrospect did anyone get messages?

[Alyssa Navarette]: Looking back at it a few of us did get messages not all of us got messages asking us where we were. The word did get out and some people did find out and some people knew what we were doing. There were a few people who got a ton of messages like "hey where are you? You're supposed to be here' I feel like they weren't as concerned or as worried about us I guess they were more like "why aren't you here?" I feel like their first thought was "Oh man lazy, unreliable, disrespectful" I think that is probably what people first thought when we didn't show up but I think when they found out why we didn't show up it challenged their views unconsciously. The views that they had in the very beginning rather.

[Mari K Smith]: So this was a reaction, or not a reaction but a demonstration for that but also for the POC hall. Can you explain that and why we decided to do it? Not just for the disappearance but also for the hall?

[Alyssa Navarette]: When we first made our list of demands which included the hall it then resulted in the disappearance for the hall and it was due to solidarity and safety. There have been a few incidents on campus that didn't directly happen to me. It happened to people that were close to me and people that weren't close to me. All of them almost all of them were anonymous. Which was very disturbing because it shows that this person knew 00:10:00it was wrong but they chose to do it anyway. And it is very tactful that they chose to do it anonymously. They did it in such a way that no one caught them. They did it in such a way that they had to study these people and their habits and when they were going to be out of their room. They waited for this person. There is still this fear in a lot of us I feel even myself of uncomfort knowing that something could happen to you even at Antioch because it is a very very safe campus its a really really safe town minus the tourists that come and go. People leave their doors unlocked. We work on an honor code. You know people just assume that is going to be respected but when something happens and it happens to all woman and 00:11:00all of these women are women of color it can't just be a coincidence. It made us very uncomfortable and this was one of our solutions that we saw at least to temporarily ease us in our time of need.

[Mari K Smith]: Do you believe that having a POC hall is a form of self segregation? Why or why not?

[Alyssa Navarette]: I don't believe that this is a form of self segregation at all. I think people are only labeling that because we are people of color. It has been brought up many many times through various different people that they're only using this word segregation because we're people of color When there is a woman's only hall and no one calls that segregation. We have a men's only hall no one calls that segregation. 00:12:00We have the gender neutral hall that no one calls that segregation. The second you bring Racism, Race, Color, these words into the conversation everyone automatically thinks of Jim Crow, Slavery, Segregation that automatically adds onto the issue of Racism on campus. We're not trying to Segregate ourselves, we're trying to feel comfortable and safe and we want to have this sense of community within ourselves. Which I feel can also teach us a great appreciation within our cultures. I think being away from home has taught me a lot about appreciating my culture and it's nice to be around other people of color because it teaches me how to better appreciate my culture it teaches me more about their culture and it teaches me more about myself. I now better understand why things are done and how things are done I think. You can't share something that you're not knowledgeable about and I think this hall can 00:13:00help us with that.

[Mari K Smith]: Arguably going to college can be a very fragmenting process. We're all taken from our homes and put into a new foreign environment. I think everyone goes through that. Without this POC hall what are something you've done that has helped or some of your experiences with that?

[Alyssa Navarette]: I don't think I saw it at first. I think now that we've been talking about it more I realized I didn't necessarily miss my family. I did miss my family but not as much as most people did. I missed more just like, little things that happened in my family 00:14:00that I didn't realize were specific to our culture. Things that I never thought that I would not be able to get here like going to Walmart and not being able to find one of my favorite foods here because they don't sell it here. Which was very strange to me the very first glance. Lemon chips and solpita, and big jars of pickles. Yea that was very distressing to me. Everyone was like oh "you're going to have culture shock when you move to Ohio." and I didn't until that moment and I wanted to lie down and cry in the isle because I couldn't find the food that I was craving that my Grandma used to make for me all of the time. I think that is probably what impacted the most I guess. It's just strange how they tried to spread all of the POC they tried to spread us out throughout the entirety of North hall basically since that is where all of the first years are. And we still ended up finding each other I mean both of my best friends are Hispanic. There is also like the other group of the mijas which were the rest of the Hispanics basically. They're trying so hard to separate us but we still want to find each 00:15:00other for the sense of comfort. I think that's due to the fact that they've tried so hard to separate us.

[Mari K Smith]: Would you say there is a conflict of interest between...You would say they were deliberately separating the people of color within our own halls.

[Alyssa Navarette]: I would say yes. I think Antioch tries to come off as a very diverse place and at times a few of us have felt like we only got into Antioch because we're people of color. Like they needed to fill that quota of people of color and that's what helped us get in. A lot of us don't feel like we are as intellectual as other people on campus and I think that says a lot about the way that we're taught the workload we get on campus. How we 00:16:00handle it. It installs a lot of doubt in ourselves knowing that colleges are trying so hard to be diverse that it feels as if they're trying to get this picture perfect thing to attract more students. Especially here at Antioch since we're trying to gain more students since we're a start up school but then you come here and its not as diverse as it seems especially since we have a really bad retention rate and even worse in people of color.

[Mari K Smith]: Do you feel that a people of color hall is necessary on a small liberal arts campus? You kind of already answered that but expand on it if you could.

[Alyssa Navarette]: I think it is necessary in small liberal arts campuses like Antioch in like specifically this campus because we're so small everyone knows 00:17:00everything. It's really hard to keep secrets because we're so small. I think its necessary because we need a place to go to just relax and feel comfortable and just bond. I feel like on a bigger campus it's easier to detach yourself. On a smaller campus like this you have to be friends with everyone and sometimes people exhaust you even if they're your friends and I think it's necessary to have a space where we can go any time of day to get a break from that. You might love everyone on campus they still might tire you out.

[Mari K Smith]: One concept that was introduced to us on that one day of disappearance was the concept of educating or feeling like you have to be that person to educate and be level headed and explain things to people. Can you explain more about that responsibility and how it impacts your education?

[Alyssa Navarette]: I think it impacts my education, it impacts every person of colors education on campus because it's not our responsibility to teach these people but at the same time most of us don't mind doing it and it was said that some white people are scared to ask and interact with us because they feel like we're going to attack them and none of us have ever done that but we do get frustrated having to explain things over and over and over again in our own homes and in our own time. When we are trying to get away from the stress of Antioch as it is. The way I think about it is when you go home you don't have to explain yourself after a long day of school in highschool when you went home to your family you never had to 00:18:00explain yourself because they were just your family they just knew. That's where you learned your culture from your family, that's what you grew up with so you never had to explain yourself. There is this constant stress of not being able to feel normal because everything you do is questioned. I think that can be very tiring and stressful mentally.

[Mari K Smith]: What does it mean to you to have culture in your life?

[Alyssa Navarette]: It means to me just something that makes us unique, it's something that gives people something to bond over. It gives you a sense of warmth inside of yourself. I think culture gives you a sense of warmth and a sense of stability. Culture is what makes you unique. Even within Mexican culture there are small variations and it's interesting to see how families vary like how all different languages have different variations. It's interesting it's another part of what makes you 00:19:00you so when people are questioning why you are yourself it brings this sense of displacement to yourself after a while like if everyone is questioning me am I doing the right thing am I wrong? It's uncomforting to feel displaced like that.

[Mari K Smith]: One last question: Yellow Springs was once a place of great diversity as well as a safe haven for people of color greatly due to Antioch college. Do you think we can regain this once again and when you came here did you feel that responsibility or that drive or that mission?